With the ships all spruced up and traveling to destinations that are famous for romance, Holland America Line has sent out the wedding invitations. Holland wants to leverage its obvious assets — beautiful destinations and luxury accommodations at sea — as well as a surprising price advantage, to attract more wedding parties to its ships. The premium line has introduced a Wedding Package to its Group Advantage Program, allowing couples to create their own ceremonies and parties that can be shared with as large a group of family and friends as they like.
Groups are a strong part of Holland America’s business, and weddings are a growing portion of the group business, according to the line. A cruise wedding is tremendously convenient and fun, allowing the group to party and celebrate together while allowing couples to have private time as well. Typical of group packages, wedding parties enjoy numerous amenities, including a stateroom upgrade for each wedding couple whose group has booked at least eight staterooms. Also, Holland America will serve a wedding cake for up to 16 guests, with a nominal charge for additional guests. The entire group enjoys a Pinnacle Grill lunch, private wine tasting and chocolate-covered strawberries and bottle of Chase Limogere Brut in their staterooms.
For onboard weddings, services can be scheduled and arranged by Holland America Line’s wedding planners, Royal Ocean Events Inc. Weddings include a personalized ceremony, wedding coordinator services, flowers, cake, champagne, a photo album, recorded music and a photographer. And according to Holland America’s calculations, a fully planned and coordinated cruise ship wedding costs substantially less than the North American average wedding-ceremony expenditure of $25,000.
